Posts Tagged ‘threatens’

Army experts are therefore having to dig around the bomb in order to gain access and defuse it.

They have surrounded it with an ‘igloo’ of special sandbags in order to absorb some of the impact should it accidentally go off.

But locals were left in no doubt as to the seriousness of the situation with police them they could be killed if they attempted to remain in their homes.

A police officer explains the situation to a local (National)

In a leaflet the Metropolitan Police said: “The Army bomb disposal team have advised that, if the bomb explodes, buildings in the 200-metre zone will be significantly damaged and those close to the bomb will be destroyed. Remaining in your home is placing your life at significant risk.”

Local Southwark councillor Lucas Green denied claims that the police were causing unnecessary panic insisting: “This area lived through the Blitz once and it still remembers how to handle itself in a similar situation.

“There’s the danger that people may think everything is OK. But the serious work begins now.”

Southwark council re-homed around 100 people on Monday night, while the Red Cross helped to provide food and other supplies to vulnerable people who had been affected.

A member of the Royal Logistic Corps Bomb Disposal team at the scene (Jamie Lorriman)

Local resident, Mary Chrisfield, 84, who was just eight years old when The Blitz began, said she could never have imagined she would be directly affected by the bombings 80 years after the war ended.

She said: “I remember my uncles reading about The Blitz to me from the newspaper. There was still damage visible when I moved to Bermondsey in 1950. I remember the front of St Joseph’s Cathedral was in ruins.

“I’ve lived through the time of the Blitz and people telling me about it in the years after. I never thought reading about it in the newspapers all those years ago that I would be affected by it directly.

“It is strange to think that the bombs are still here but even stranger to think they are impacting on London all this time later.”

London Fire Brigade said that between 2009 and 2014 it was called to seven unexploded Second World War bombs and five unexploded hand grenades.

Police and Royal Logistic Corps Bomb Disposal Unit securing the area (LNP)

Meanwhile an alert was sparked close to Gatwick Airport after workmen discovered another unexploded shell.

The 70-year-old ordnance was discovered underneath a tree by workmen digging up a stretch of land between the North and South terminals at the West Sussex airport.

A cordon was thrown around the area and the Perimeter Road North was closed to traffic while the Explosive Ordnance Disposal team carried out a controlled explosion.

A police spokesman said: “At 9.30am a Second World War munition, possibly an unexploded shell, was discovered close to the police dog training ground at Gatwick Airport.

“A tree appeared to have grown around the device, suggesting it had been there for a considerable time.”

Inspector Andy Richardson, from Sussex Police, said: “The passenger shuttle between the north and south terminals was temporarily disrupted for a while but flights were not affected.